Abū Sahl Zawzanī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan (al-Ḥusayn), whose official title was al-Shaykh al-ʿAmīd (d. ca. 446/1054), was a secretary and minister of the court (dīwān-sālār) during the time of the Ghaznawids. The main authoritative source on his life is the Tārīkh by Bayhaqī (d. 470/1077), the secretary and chronicler who was Abū Sahl's contemporary. His father must have been a celebrated religious scholar, as Bayhaqī (p. 222) refers to him with the designation imāmzādah (a direct descendant of a Shiʿi imam) (see Riḍāʾī, 222). As was customary for court secretaries at t…